Medically themed TV shows cover a wide range of genres; they include comedies such as Scrubs, dramas such as Grey’s Anatomy, and soap operas such as General Hospital—the longest-running American soap opera currently in production. Too often the scientific-relevance of treatments presented on such shows is difficult to grasp and inaccurate. Research presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s annual meeting in 2010 accordingly found that 46 percent of seizure cases depicted on medical dramas were subject to inappropriate treatments.

Along these lines, American news outlets are often criticized for presenting health-related news items in a sensationalist and distorted manner. Panelists for this event will consider the relationship between health issues and their representations in the media. Do TV producers and filmmakers have any ethical obligations to accurately present medical cases? How do current depictions of health on TV and in the news impact the way viewers seek out and view medical treatment?

USC LEVAN INSTITUTE FOR HUMANITIES AND ETHICSThe USC Levan Institute engages students with the timeless values at the core of our humanity, promotes moral reflection and understanding of self, facilitates multidisciplinary dialogue, and encourages students to make a positive impact across society and the globe.

The recent massacre at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, Saudi Arabia’s caning of a blogger for religiously offensive speech, and the French government’s crackdown on speech in support of terrorism have intensified debate worldwide over the meaning and limits of public expression. What sorts of speech should be protected and on what grounds? More

Coffeehouse Conversations Program Director and Moderator:Sharon Lloyd, Professor of Philosophy, Law, and Political Science

Wednesday, February 11, 2015 | 4 PM | Herklotz Room, Doheny Memorial Library (DML 233)
**UPDATED LOCATION**
RSVP: http://bit.ly/1BiLUvN
Hugo Slim is the University of Oxford Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict Associate Director and Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations. From 1983-1994, he worked as a frontline humanitarian worker for Save the Children UK and the United Nations in Morocco, Sudan and Ethiopia, the Palestinian Territories and Bangladesh. He is currently leading research on humanitarian ethics that will deliver the first major practical text on humanitarian ethics in war and disaster and will develop new standards of care and accountability in humanitarian organizations. Dr. Slim is the lead instructor for the USC Levan Institute-Oxford Workshops.

Are you a voice for social justice?

Want to have your work read around the world? The Social Justice Review (SJR), a journal sponsored by the USC Levan Institute for Humanities and Ethics, is now accepting outstanding submissions for publication in our inaugural Spring 2015 issue.

While our final deadline is not until midnight on February 9th, early submissions are welcome – whether creative or academic in nature.

As a global platform for social justice, The Social Justice Review offers a forum for undergraduates worldwide who engage—utilizing the written word—with issues of ethnicity, socio-economic status, gender, religion, or other social issues or inequalities.

Managed and edited by students at USC, The Social Justice Review seeks polished, mindfully-crafted undergraduate submissions that resonate with our socially conscious readership—academic, fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, memoir, hybrid prose, etc. We believe in the power of research, narrative, and storytelling as a means of advocating for a more socially just world.

Co-sponsored by the USC Levan Institute Undergraduate Fellows and the Thematic Option Honors Program

Following the workshop on courage, we will now move to the virtue of justice. Aristotle noted that, among the canonical virtues, justice is a special case primarily because people mean so many different things when they appeal to it. Sometimes what is lawful is just, while at other times justice may require unlawful action. Sometimes justice can be equated with fairness, and yet at other times justice may require actions that seem inequitable. According to Aristotle, justice is also difficult to determine because, of the two parties which it involves, one often has a higher status than the other. We will navigate this difficult terrain with special focus, as ever, on how we might best be just in our daily lives.

The discussion will be guided by Levan Institute Fellows and students from Thematic Option and will be moderated by James Collins, Assistant Professor of Classics.

Are you trying to figure out your career choices after college? Ever wonder what you can do with your undergraduate degree?

A student’s major does not dictate their career options or possibilities. The Dornsife Advising Office will be hosting a panel of Dornsife Alumni who graduated from the college with one major and are now successfully employed in a different field. The panel will consist of alumni from a range of majors including Spanish, Economics, Psychology, Political Science, and Art History who are now working in areas such as sales, research, business, law, and management. Learn about their experiences as undergraduates and how they were able to able to make the most of their time at USC. Discover the importance of transferable skills and how they contribute to your success when searching for a job and internship.

The first known usage of quarantine dates back from 1377 in the city of Dubrovnik, Croatia when ships suspected of carrying the Black Plague were subjected to a 40 day hold before being allowed to enter the port. Quarantine is distinct from isolation in that it is solely a preventive measure enacted to seclude individuals who may be at risk of spreading a certain disease.

Although quarantine has not been frequently implemented in recent history, during the recent outbreak of Ebola, entire villages in Liberia were subjected to quarantines, and in the US, multiple states implemented mandatory quarantines for health care workers returning from West Africa. These quarantine policies were heavily criticized by many as violating basic human rights and simply being unnecessary. Panelists for this forum will consider the medical relevance and necessity of quarantine and the human rights concerns associated with it.